A Brief Explanation of the Russian Style of Names:

Russians, generally, have three names: the first or given name (imya), the patronymic (otchestvo), and the last or family name (familya).

The patronymic, created from the given name of a person's father and a suffix meaning son of or daughter of, is unique to Russian names. It takes different forms for men and women: a man's patronymic ends in -ovich or -evich, while a woman's ends in -ovna or -evna.

Russians call each other by first name and patronymic; thus Oblonsky, for example, is always "Stepan Arkadyevitch" not "Oblonsky" or even "Mr. Oblonsky". "Arkadyevitch" signifies that his father's first name was "Arkady"; thus, his sister Anna's patronymic is "Arkadyevna". The customary form of social address is first name and patronymic, said as a unit: "Anna Arkadyevna".

The title and family name form of address (Mr. Howe, Ms. Frey, Mrs. Wagner), which is the usual formal manner of address in English, is used by Russians only in official situations.

Russians additionally use a shortened form of the first name, a diminutive, to connote a greater level of familiarity, such as that between friends and for children. Stepan Arkadyevich is known as "Stiva," and Darya Alexandrovna, his wife, is called "Dolly."

Pages xx-xxi of the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of Anna Karenina provide a list of the characters' names in the proper Russian naming system with a brief explanation summarizing the naming technique.